"I'm extending the deadline. You have until the end of the month to bring it to me. I'll text you the address. Otherwise, there would be consequences."
Laohu's words echoed in the back of June's mind.
His deadline was once again the end of June.
It felt pretty symbolic at that point.
With that, he entered Grandma's room as he had some time to visit her once again after his schedule had been reduced.
"Grandma," June happily exclaimed as he arrived at her room.
However, his smile quickly fell when he saw Grandma's state. Somehow, she had gotten even skinnier and paler than before.
June saw all her laboratory results, and it was, indeed, getting much better. However, it wasn't obvious in her current appearance.
"June," she said, having a coughing fit right after she said those words. "How are you? It hasn't been that long since you last visited."
June handed her a glass of water and allowed her to drink.
"Well, I missed my favorite grandma in the entire world," June smiled despite feeling concerned.
Grandma shook her head in amusement. "Now, you're making me feel really old."
"What do you mean?" June asked. "You aren't too old. You still have a lot of time in this world. Once you're 90, you can say that you're really old."
Grandma smiled. "Well, what brought you here today?"
"As always," June said, sitting on her bed. "I wanted to ask how you were doing and if you need anything else."
Grandma paused before shaking her head. "There's not much that I want in this hospital."
"I just want to recover quickly so I can go back to my daily routine," she smiled.
"However, there has been one thing going on lately," she muttered. "That young man I told you about—Zin. He hasn't visited in the last couple of days. Sometimes, I feel like I hear him outside of my door, but he doesn't e in. It's strange, isn't it?"
June pursed his lips. "It isn't strange, Grandma," he said.
"You have to keep in mind not to trust just anyone, okay?" June softly said, holding onto her hands.
Grandma frowned. "But Zin is a nice young man. I can tell that he is quite troubled. It also feels like he has a lot of desires—some of which are quite unreasonable. But, I see something behind his eyes, some kind of pain that his broken, young self must have gone through."
"Whenever he es here, he talks about his brother and how he always feel inpetent. I try to reassure him that not everybody is the same and that he'll only free himself from pain if he stops paring himself with others and being jealous of what others have."
June shook his head. That sounded like Lin Zhi, alright.
However, June was confused. Lin Zhi had a brother? He had never known of such information.
"Anyway," June said, shaking his head. "Don't look for him anymore. He seems to be an evil character."
"Besides," he quickly chimed before Grandma could speak once more. "I'll get jealous if you start doting on another young man my age. Aren't I enough, Grandma?"
Grandma shook her head and ruffled June's hair.
"Of course, no one would ever pare to you," Grandma smiled. "I'm just wondering where that young man is."
"He'll be alright," June said. "What's important is that you're doing alright."
"Of course I am," Grandma smiled.
Just then, the door opened, revealing a very breathless and tired-looking Dr. Oh.
June raised his eyebrows as he took in his disheveled appearance. It had been a while since they last saw each other, but it appeared like Dr. Oh had lost some weight.
Moreover, the doctor always looked neat and kempt whenever they met. However, at that moment, he looked like a crazy scientist whose experiment just blew over right at his face.
"Dr. Oh," Grandma said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Dr. Oh sighed in relief as soon as he saw that June was inside.
"Oh, thank goodness," Dr. Oh said. "I've been looking for you for the entire week! Now, you're finally in my hands."
June shook his head and stood from the bed. "Is this about what you wanted to tell me?"
Dr. Oh nodded. "Please, don't tell me you have a schedule after this one."
June shook his head. "My next schedule is tomorrow."
Dr. Oh sighed in relief. "Let's talk about it now then."
June nodded, sitting once more on the bed and gesturing to the seat before him.
Dr. Oh shook his head and held onto June's arm before dragging him out of the room.
His eyes widened in surprise, and Grandma was also confused.
Dr. Oh turned around and threw Grandma a wide smile. "I'll bring him back later!"
"Sure, sure," Grandma said despite feeling a little bit confused.
June let himself get dragged to Dr. Oh's office, still wondering what he even wanted to talk about.
As soon as they arrived, Dr. Oh sat on his seat, appearing more serious than ever.
June, on the other hand, looked around his messy office.
"Well," June said in a humorous tone. "It looks like you've been busy."
Dr. Oh didn't find this amusing, though. Instead, he continued having a poker face, making June even more confused.
June cleared his throat and settled in his seat, realizing that Dr. Oh must be dead serious if he was acting as such.
"What did you want to talk about?" June asked, getting straight to the point.
Dr. Oh pursed his lips before bringing out something from his drawers. It was a thin stack of papers.
June looked down at it for a second and saw that his name was on top of it.
"What's this?" June asked.
Dr. Oh sighed. "Your test results came back."
June raised his eyebrows in surprise, picking up the papers and reading through their contents.
He almost forgot about it.
"Oh, the ones from Germany?" he asked with a small smile.
"Yes," Dr. Oh responded. "The prehensive tests."
June's smile quickly fell when he read the results.
He wasn't an expert in medical terminologies, but he had a hunch when something was abnormal.
Dr. Oh continued to explain his results, but June could only hear him faintly.
"As you can see there, you have some myelosuppression. That means that your body isn't protecting you quite well. If you see some of the imaging results, it appears like there is a starting auto-immune process, where even normal cells are engulfed by the protective cells."
"This is the reason why I couldn't tell you this over text."
"Tell it to me in simple terms," June deadpanned, the world finally being clear as he placed down the stack of papers.
Dr. Oh sighed, appearing to be in distress.
"You're sick, June," he said.
"Very, very sick."
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